Raila spills beans on the one condition Uhuru gave him before the handshake
What happened behind the scenes before handshake
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Speaking in Kitui, where he was presiding over the opening of a posh hotel owned by US-based law professor Makau Mutua, Mr Odinga divulged that he asked Kenyatta to eliminate any person with vested interested in the 2022 election from the discussion.
This according to Odinga was how his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy President William Ruto found themselves in the dark when the now famous handshake took place on March 9 outside Harambee House.
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"I said I didn’t want to talk to those people who want to talk about 2022. President Kenyatta asked me to leave out my brother Mr Musyoka from the talks after I also demanded that his deputy William Ruto be excluded as well, to which he agreed.
"We agreed that the initial talks were to be talks about talks," he said.
The NASA principal mentioned that after his swearing-in on January 30 President Kenyatta was being pressured to arrest and charge him with treason.
"Uhuru was under pressure from his core Jubilee supporters to arrest and drag me to court on treason charges but he refused because that could have plunged the country into chaos," he stated.
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On the other hand, Odinga said that his supporters were ready to evade paying taxes and torch Kenyatta’s portrait in a public event, as a sign that they did not recognize his presidency.
"Our people had already agreed to gather all Presidential portraits and burn them. We were also going to start collecting taxes from people in our strongholds.
"I thought about it keenly and figured that we could easily head the Syria or Yemen way," he said.
Odinga’s explanation comes at a time when DP Ruto confessed on live TV that he was privy to the handshake discussion between the Opposition chief and Mr Kenyatta.
Speaking during an interview on NTV Mr Ruto said: I was aware of the handshake before it happened and I support it wholeheartedly,"
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